Hi there, ive been playing my wizard for a fair while now on the beholder server. I participate in PvP and find myself a competant pvper, though i find PvP in this game relatively silly. Cleared all dungeons and ran multiple different types of groups, with or without tanks, double wizards and such. Giving me ample time to experiment and compare damage to various other classes and participate in encounters in different builds and setups.

So I am fairly experienced in different roles a wizard can do for each encounter. Anyways i noticed alot of guides out there speak of only one singular spec, and how this is better than that. Which i wholeheartedly disagree with, not on a technical level but as a gamer, we should be encouraged to play the way we want, and show different ways to be useful, and not have people stop you because so and so said “this is the best, yours is bad”. So I decided to write this guide not like the other guides you may read on the forums, where they show you their builds, or tell you what is the “best”. This is a breakdown and some personal advice, to give you some help to decide what kind of things you want to build your wizard to be, some of the advice may seem forceful but I don’t intend this does not “force” you to down one way or the other, after all, these are only my opinions and experiences. LET US BEGIN!

Well simply put, you do what the group requires you to do, or what you think is best for the group, we excel in many things, single target damage, aoe, controlling adds, pushing things off cliffs. As a wizard you must learn to use more than 1 set of spells to master wizardry and challenge yourself to make any group composition work.

Control:

The primary reason we get invited to parties is to provide control, its in our name after all. Almost all our spells provide some sort of control, whether its a knockdown, stun, slow or knockback. With a full set of controlling spells equipped you can lock down/keep away, and severely dampen enemy monsters, it is common to see groups with two wizards and no tank, using the combined control skills of the two wizards to reduce their threat so even though you are all squishie people, the cleric has sufficient time to keep everyone alive, this includes all T2 bosses/dungeons

AOE:

Wizards have the highest aoe damage of all classes, we have a huge selection of aoe encounters that nearly all do high damage with added control of one sort or another, and some do not have or have a aoe limit. You can go two different routes here, either damage over time aoe (which will proc weapon enchants and class features) or high burst aoe, we have enough encounters to cover both options.

What makes us excel over say, a gwf aoe, and not just in damage. is the ability for us to force and move mobs to our pleasure, placing them away from a large nasty, or pulling them all in a nice group so you and your team and blast them all in a swift move.

Single target damage:

Dungeon trash clearing asside, we will be required to perform single target damage in many boss encounters, and is just as important as your capablilty to do area effect damage or control. Despite what some wizards say, we do a little less than rogues, but can do more than any other class. In certain boss fights and class setups (such as double wizard) you may find it more effective to go single damage on a boss.

The main strengths that wizards provide when it comes to single target damage, is that we do not have to avoid melee ranged red attacks, and we can continue attacking immediately after a teleport, and we also apply debuffs to help party members. However we are limited in the selection of single target but the tools available to us are nothing to laugh at, just be sure you grab these powers for these occasions.

Pushing things and Bumping:

You will most likely spend a numerous amount of time doing this during high level dungeons. It is an effective way to kill enemies. This is achieved by grouping them up, (with a tank or arcane singularity daily) and using shield to push the enemies over ledges, cliffs, fences, or using Repel to launch them across the floor and over a cliff.. This saves the team alot of time from having to hack them to death, oh and if the monsters die from a hazardous landing, you also get their remaining HP added to you damage meter! not that it is important, but for some reason those rogues and gwfs hump over that thing.

Now what is called bumping is slightly different, it consists of the combination of arcane singularity and shield (activation). Place your singularity at the edge of within 15-20 ft of the edge of where you want to push off the mobs, once they get sucked up into the black hole, they will spin for a moment and then when you see the black hole expanding, this is when you need to activate your shield, for maximum push, your shield goes off as the blackhole bursts., if you have latency its safe to use your shield as you see the blackhole near/at its biggest (stand on the opposite side of the hole/drop) and this will launch the collection neatly over a ledge/fence, this differs with different types of enemies, what i call fatties or spiders. for these you need to watch them, as they will not get sucked up like regular mobs. once you see them rise into the air (when the black hole bursts) that is when you need to use shield, when you are required to do this on demand/often, use entangling force on you mastery slot to aid in regenerating AP quickly.

If using repel, you should time it the same as i stated, but because of repel’s small radius you need to aim at your target rather than the center of the black hole.

Class Mechanics

Teleport
This is our shift/double tap move, it will teleport us in the direction you point or press using the awsd keys for 25 feet, very useful to move out of red zones safely, and the speed you teleport will allow little break in your casting actions. With a full stamina bar you can teleport 3 times (will some stamina to spare), and only takes 5 seconds to recharge enough stamina to whole teleport at 10 strength. Use it often! and be mindful of your stamina bar when you notice you teleported too many times.

In PvP you want to time this against opponents encounters and/or dailies. to get the most out of it, many smart opponents will rush at you, without even casting any abilities, to force your blinks, because, they all hate our teleport and will take advantage of you when you used all yours up.

Arcane StacksNow many new wizards and some old wizards will forget about this, each stack will give you a 3% arcane damage increase per stack. This stacks up to 5 times. These will effect of most of your arcane spells. And provide important and in some scenarios the stacks of your arcane will effect the success of task. For example with max stacks you can afford to cast your shield to regain alot of AP then use your daily and have your shield back off cooldown. You gain arcane stacks from casting arcane spells, and 1 stack from a full rotation/combo of magic missile.

Chill Stacks
These will stack up to 6 time, and when the 7th one hits, they will become frozen. once the freeze ends the stacks will drop off and you will have to begin from 0. Each stack of chill slows them by around 10%. they will become unfrozen sooner if they are damaged.

These chill effects are important for certain feats for wizards including damage bonus, mitigation or debuffs. And almost all cold spells apply chill, some multiple times/aoe, and some spells will keep your current stacks refreshed

Wisdom, Int and Charisma are all good choices. Renegade specs makes the most out of Cha due to the combat advantage bonus. However the pet bonus is also useful for all wizards (only applies to pet’s base stats), and critical chance. You cannot go with with either three stats, for a wizard’s duties.

Recharge increase: Recharge increase does not reduce cooldown by that percentage but increases the number of times you can cast it by that percentage. Here is the formula:

Original Cooldown / (1+ recharge percentage) = Cooldown

For example, Shield has 19.75 cooldown you get 30% from stats, and 10% from feat. it would translate to: 19.75/ (1+ 0.30 +0.10) = 14.1 seconds.

Gear Stats
Recovery and Critical diminishing graph (sorry didnt have the data for 4000-5000 of the stat, but you can see the curve)

Power: Has no diminishing point. However it is argued as one of the less favorable stats. At +154, power will give you. +3 damage on magic missile, +15 damage on chill strike, +11 damage on steal time.Critical: Increases your critical strike chance, an important statistic for damage output, and proccing certain feats.Armor Penetration: Most important damage stat for PvE as it will give you effectively a % bonus, in PvP armor can vary so it is advised to shift your ArP stat onto your pet (stone/cat) for maximum efficiency. This stat is capped at 24% for PvE bosses which is 2530 other elites at 22% which is 2230.Recovery: Arguably the most important stat for a wizard to increase first. It gives recharge increase and most importantly action point gain. The wizard suggest around 3000 is suitable for end game, however some would argue more, this all depends on what kind of role you prefer or see yourself in often.Lifesteal: Give you life back on damage, it is not useful unless stacked to around 1000 but will keep yourself alive longer if you are getting damage and putting out damage at the same time, and Regeneration is more reliable way of regaining HP if you are moving.HP: For defensive enchants HP can be useful. some abilities from bosses or even elites at T2 dungeons can take you down in one ability.Regeneration: A great stat for alot of situations, especially during leveling phase. It will regenerate more based on how hurt you are, if you are in PvP or PvE, and you take a big hit, regeneration can help you get your health back along with potions, whilst moving to safety.Defense: An overlooked statistic. If you find yourself getting hurt too much and dying too much, defense is a safe investment 1000+ is recommended.Deflect: The worst stat for a wizard, the % chance is not something that can be relied on to save you.Movement: We are so slow, this can help in that regard, gained from enchant armor pieces.For a more indepth and alot better graph than mine, which includes formulas and all other stats (such as defense), take a look at https://www.desmos.com/calculator/3dqpvhuavjEpic Lewt!

Weapon Enchants:

Vorpal: Greater = 38% Crit Severity Best for single target damage, burst damage, and just damage in general, especially at high ranks, with 35% crit, and eye of the storm. you will see alot of big numbers, slightly less effective than lightning enchant if you are using a conduit of ice/icy terrain loadout. But works for you in all situations, and overall the highest personal damage enchant (PvE).

Lightning:Greater =18% weapon damage. chains twice at 50% chance each time.
Best for aoe damage If you are using a particular spell loadout. It will proc 6x on conduit and steal time and 8 times on icy terrain. However be warned about using this enchant, you will more often than not agro adds and freshly spawned ones before the tank gets a chance to catch it. Only go for this if you can afford to get greater or higher.

Plaguefire:Greater =+7.5% weapon damage and 2.5% per second for three seconds, stacks 3 times and applies 15% reduced defense with each stack.Application procs storm spell so effectively doubles yoru spell feature, great for all situations and especially in pvp. The debuff (-15% defense stacks 3 times at greater version) works well even if you have another non-wizard using it, due to our near limitless aoe application, and multiple applications from a single spell. (Does not stack with other player’s plaguefire). This is a great all rounder enchant.

Armor Enchants:

Soulforged: Makes you immune to damage upon reaching 25% health. However it will not work if your health drops past 25% to 0% in one hit. Useful in PvE if you have high defense, but if you are terribly squishie you will often die before it getting a chance to activate, as many hits will drop you from over 25% to death quite easily. However it is still great to use in PvP.

Negation: At greater version it has a 20% chance to increase resistance by 25% for 6 seconds. This is quite good as it will save you during those nasty initial pulls and give you much needed durablity during a fight.
Barkshield: – to be updated

Companions:

(I have tried different companions, strikers, healers and my lovely Galeb Duhr, however it is sad to say but there are only really two options when it comes to dungeoning, however the Galeb Duhr is a lovely companion to bring along for some foundry missions and soloing gauntlgyrm PvE)

The most benefical companions in almost all situations are Stat augmenting pets. These pets will not cause agro, attack things, and are immune to damage. Which is another reason why they are so great, with rank 7 runestones/enchants and high level items. you can gain up to 3000 extra stats by using one of these pets. It is advised if you are yet to make a big purchase, this should be your priority over anything else (gear wise, Gear score can screw itself.)

There are 2 flavours, the stone and the cat. People have been arguing back and forth which one is better, the cat is more expensive and uses a belt slot, which tend to have +HP on them, which is the only stat that does not transfer from pet to your character. However there are blue level belts that give +376 total stats with valuable armor penetration, something that is rarely found on a cleric offhand but a Tier 2 Icon will provide 450 total stats. It all depends on what you want or need as a wizard, they are both fine choices. Below are the details.

Eldritch rune in the defensive runestone will only increase the pet bonus stats (currently), at rank 6 it gives +8% bonus stats.

Armor Sets:Note: Some of these set bonuses maybe bugged or not working as intended whilst you read this, please check to see if there are any problems with these armor sets, or what spells currently apply to them!!!
With enough AD from extended play, from selling things on Auction or Purchasing zen, eventually when you reach Rank 7 enchants and over, (e.g. +185 at rank 7 or +220 at rank 8 stat enchants). The actual Armor stats will become less and less important unless you are pushing strongly into one specific stat.)

Set Bonus 1: +400 RecoverySet Bonus 2: Reduce cooldowns of control powers by 1 seconds when using a control power

(One of the best PvE set, most of the powers you use will be control ones, casting steal time will reduce everything by 6 seconds. you will be firing encounters more than your at-wills with this set on)

Set Bonus 1: +400 CritSet Bonus 2: grants 225 power and recovery to nearby allies.
(This effect will stack, hit 10 things with a control spell and thats 2250 power/recovery, to your friends. Pretty handy buff. Though requires alot of things to hit in the first place.)

(Stacks 3 times but can be placed on multiple enemies, most control spells will place this debuff but only some will give you the bonus. This stacks with other defense reduction % abilities and other wizards using this set. Arguably the best for PvP and PvE in terms of damage as it is effectively a 20-25% damage bonus for that target)

Set Bonus 1: +450 CritSet Bonus 2: When usinga Control powers you grant allies 113 lifesteal. When using Arcane powers you grants allies 3% crit severity. Both stack 3 times and last 10 seconds, When target is afflicted by both buffs they double in value.

(The lifesteal is not as important to most, but 18% crit severity is very nice indeed, just make sure you cast a control spell within 10 seconds.)

(Situational but good for trash, and it depends on what value your recovery is, the effects however, are not very noticable)

Powers and Abilities

At-Wills
Magic Missile (Arcane): At-Will Our best single target at-will. Applies arcane stacks which is useful when casting certain other powers and increasing its own damage. (Recommended for Renegade paragon)

Ray of Frost (Cold): Great to use to apply stacks of chill fast (even faster with oppressor feat line). It has low damage, however it has the highest chance to proc class features/and feats. (Recommended for Oppressor paragon)

Chilling cloud (Cold -AoE on third strike): First two strikes will refresh chill and casts an AoE at the 3rd strike which applies chill. The radius of the aoe is 10ft. The damage is lower than magic missile unless hitting alot of targets, however it benefits from procing feats/class features more than magic missile giving it equal footing.(Recommended for Thaumaturge paragon)

Storm pillar (Lightning): Takes along time to charge (2 seconds, same as full cycle magic missile and chilling cloud) and creates a stormpillar that will attack a target when fully charged. It does moderate/high damage but can be cumbersome to use, this is because you must charge fully to create the storm pillar and if you miss your mark you will lose out on the extra damage (so you will have to overcharge, potentially using more time).
What makes this spell special is that it will charge you AP out of combat, which is very useful to prep yourself before boss fights and other situations (such as in CN), Also refreshed chill and arcane stacks but does not grant them. (Recommended at rank 1)

Our neighbourhood wizard pfft2 did some wonderful tests with at-wills, detailing proc rates and damage over a length of time check it out here:
Testing At-Will Powers

Encounters:

Chill strike (Cold – AoE on mastery): One of our best single target damage encounter, also does aoe damage while slotted in mastery (Limit of 5), and will stun its primary target. great for clearing our weak mobs, and leveling (Recommended)

Conduit of Ice (Cold – DoT): High damage over time when chill is placed on target, placing it in Mastery improves its radius significantly and applies chill with each tick (ticks 6 times) and increased damage by 5% per chill effect for both single target and nearby enemies.(Recommended)

Entangling Force (Arcane – DoT): Holds the target in the air for duration, Your best single target CC, improving ranks will reduce its cooldown and increase duration/damage. When put on mastery, it is Our best AP generator. as it will give AP for every enemy struck as well as grant an arcane stack for each hit. (Recommended)

Repel (Arcane – AoE on mastery): May not sound so great, but this spell will make things alot easier in many situations in T2, and almost a must have in certain fights. it has a low cooldown and big range, so you dont need to be near the target to push them. Does even more pushback with arcane stacks. On Mastery it will push anything within your line but has a small radius (5 targets max), so positioning is required. (Recommended at 1 point atleast)

Shield (Arcane – AoE): reduces damage, and will lose its effectiveness when struck but will automatically refresh itself, the cooldown to recast is significantly reduced depending on your arcane stacks (50% reduced cooldown at 5 stacks).
The resistance can save you from lethal damage. When charged it will absorb 50% normal and 80% on Mastery it gives 10% resistance whilst it is charging up.
It has no target limit and does moderate damage however it will calculate it’s damage/critical chance per target. It is most notably used push grouped up mobs off cliffs and down holes (coupled with arcane singularity), but otherwise it is situational, but great during the leveling phase. (Recommended at 1 point atleast)

Icy Terrain (Cold – DoT): Will apply chill, and ticks 7 times (so around 2200-2500 damage at level 60) and can crit. Its damage alone is one of the lowest of all our spells. However it still applies weapon enchants, and procs storm spell class feature and has no target limit. This is best used with Conduit of Ice (Mastery) for combined damage and snergises well with the Chilling presence class feature.

Sudden storm (Lightning – DoT on mastery): High damage and will hit multiple targets, does even more damage on Mastery. Its fires in a tight column ahead of your character, so it requires a bit of positioning to make most use from it or using entangling force on Mastery/singularity. Its our of our hardest hitting aoe encounters.

Ray of enfeeblement (Arcane): Our Highest damage single target encounter, and also reduces target mitigation by 20%. Gives a fair amount of AP when used too. However do not use this on Mastery, as it will increase its cooldown. (Recommended)

Ice Rays (Cold): Our highest single target ability when Mastery (in one encounter) however it has a lengthy cooldown. Most useful when Mastery, for PvP or single target encounters (as there is limited other choice in that scenario). (Recommended)

Steal time (Arcane – AoE): This spell procs weapon enchants and storm spell during its channeling, it slows enemies caught within its radius (including their attack speed). and stun them after the channeling ends. It can do alot of damage, and our best AoE CC encounter. (recommended)

Shard of Endless Avalanche (Arcane – AoE): Very cool spell, not many wizards will use it, and some will downright frown upon you. However it is a fun spell and useful. It will knock prone those that it hits and knockback a little and prone again when it explodes, Use it vs two or more targets, does around 3k non crit when it hits the first time and around 5k the second time.

Dailies:

Ice Storm (Cold): Our first daily, Does good damage, and knocks back everything it its. Because of this, a well placed singularity can be more useful than using this daily.

Arcane Singularity (Arcane – AoE): Our staple CC spell, will suck enemies within a large radius into a black hole and spit them out at that spot, great for pulling things away, holding them in place for AoE damage, and pushing large groups off cliffs to their deaths. However there is a 15 cap limit and more importantly enemies affected by singularity are also immune to damage from Sudden storm, Shard of endless avalanche and Oppressive force. (Recommended)

Oppressive Force (Arcane – AoE): Useful Daily that will daze enemies around you, a good oh Sh*t daily, as the activation is fast and does moderate amount of damage, with no limit so it becomes our best aoe damage daily, because of its quicker activation. In some cases singularity is more useful, But this does have its place, and will also reveal stealthed rogues nearby too.

Ice Knife (Cold): Our only single target daily. It knocks down and does alot of damage. (Recommended)

Maelstrom of Chaos (Arcane): Does alot of damage for an aoe, and will transport enemies near you to the target location. However this radius is rather small, especially when comparing it to arcane singularity.

Class Features:

Orb of imposition: Increases your control spells duration by 5/10/15%. Useful, but not game changing.

Arcane presence: at 3 ranks it will increase your cold based damage by 3% per stack. most useful when using magic missile, and cold encounter spells.

Chilling presence: Unlike Arcane presence, this will increase all your damage output by 3% on a chilled target, chills can be applied very quickly in aoe situations and kepted consistantly on single target (such as chilling cloud) does 18% bonus damage on maxed stacks.

Evocation: Increases your AoE damage by 15% at rank 3, very useful during leveling phase or solo because of its consistency and does not rely on chill or arcane stacks, or procs. (However only works with Spells classed as AoE which is few/half of the actual aoe ones we have)

Storm Fury: An amusing spell, in PvE it has limited use, because you will rarely stay below 50%, it is more useful in PvP, but not noticable

Storm Spell: At 60 does around 1700. Feels lower than 10% chance, however it does contribute alot to our overall damage, it is like having another encounter that will damage automatically. (Recommended)

Eye of the storm: At rank 3 it has a 5% chance to proc when using an at-will and a 15% chance to proc on an encounter giving you 100% crit chance for 3 seconds. A great spell feature in almost all situations when something needs to be killed. bare in mind it makes your crit stat obselete whilst it is up and running, a key feature for renegade wizards however.

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Spells Classed as Damage over Time (DoT):

These spells are classed as DoT Damage, meaning the damage is calculated on spell cast (does not increase from effects afterwards) if you crit on them initially the remaining ticks will also crit, also these DoT effects are not classed as AoE (if they provide that function) so will not benefit from AoE damage increases.

AP Gains

Now here is some important stuff. AP gains are important to get off the big aoe dailies we can do which aid in damage and control, but most importantly the ability to use arcane singularity to bump. Entangling Force will give you the most when hitting multiple targets, here is a breakdown of data I found posted by Lemandal

Steal Time: 5 targets with slowing portion, 5 targets with damage cast. Every tick of precast grants a stack of the Steal Time buff, capping at 15, and every tick procs any spell effects that can be procced.

Steal Time – Spell Mastery: As above.

Sudden Storm: Infinite targets.

Sudden Storm – Spell Mastery: Infinite targets including DoTFeats!Note: Some of these feats may not be functioning properly or as intend, because of bugs which some of you may know by now are a plague in this game, I will consider what i can as intended and obvious bugs i will try to leave out as the game changes come fairly often.

Heroic Feats

Tier 1Controlling Action: Gain an additional 2/4/6/8/10% Action points when using powers on a controlled targetUseful feat for gaining extra AP, it does not stack additively. so if you gain 20% this will give you an extra 2%. However the amount you will hit, it will become noticable. If you are fustrated that you are only 1 or 2 casts away from a daily, this you can save you those precious seconds. Currently it works with many of the control spells, Icy terrain, entangling force, steal time, arcane singularity. However it is bugged and does not work from using shield.

Weapon Mastery: 1/2/3% chance to crit.An extra crit boost, additive. Useful to increase your overall damage output, as it becomes harder to get more crit from the stat once you get over the 3000 mark, this feat will give you the edge, coupled with charisma. it can help you push your crit over the 40% mark.

Toughness: 3/6/9% extra maximum hitpointsUseful feat for all round, works after any item or enchant boosts. give you a bit more durability in PvP and may save you from PvE encounters. Without this or any hp enchancements, and minimal CON your looking at below 20k HP mark.

For example, Shield has 19.75 cooldown you get 30% from stats, and 10% from feat. it would translate to: 19.75/ (1+ 0.30 +0.10) = 14.1 seconds.

Battle Wise: reduces your threat by 2/4/6%We draw agro so easily in dungeons it can be a bit fustrating, however even 6% less threat will not make any difference, a 6% less angry target will rarely decide to go bother someone else, over you.

Wizard’s Wrath: Increases your area damage by 2/4/6%Area damage is where we excel in (over other classes). A helpful boost that will stack with another similar feat further up the tier. This does not apply to spells classed as DoTs. Works with Chilling cloud (third strike), chill strike – Mastery, Repel – Mastery, Shield, Steal time, SoteA and AoE dailies.

Tier 3Blighting Power: Your Cold powers deal an additional 3/6/9% extra damage to targets effected by chill.We have many useful cold powers, and many of these will apply chill, especially during AoE phases. During the times you do not use chill it is generally when you are not dealing damage

Lightning teleport: When killing a foe you gain 2/4/6/8/10% of maximum StaminaYou will be killing things alot during solo (ofcourse) and also in dungeons. However the times you most likely will be using teleports are during phases where you can not reliably kill anything.

Arcane enhancement: Your arcane powers deal 2/4/6% extra damage.We have a fair number of arcane powers. However, magic missile is our best single target at-will for damage and just this spell alone will count for a big slice of your contributing damage so this is useful if you use this spell alot.

Tier 4Learned Spellcaster: Increases the bonus damage intelligence provides by 1/2/3/4/5%This is a confusing tooltip, it actually increases your damage by that set amount, so you cannot go wrong with taking this feat, also your intelligence bonus will apply to this bonus too. so if you have 20% from Int, you will get 1.2/2.4/3.6/4.8/6%.

Prestidigitation: You and your allies gain 1/2/3% increased stat ratingDoes exactly what it says, increases you and your party member stats by 3%, can be a useful boost, 3000 recovery would become 3090 etc.Also stacks with other wizard’s prestidigitation and has unlimited range (just for party members)

Focused Wizardry: Increases your area damage by 3/6/9%Just like wizard’s wrath and more but still does not apply to spells classed as DoTs. Works with Chilling cloud (third strike), chill strike – Mastery, Repel – Mastery, Shield, Steal time, SoteA and AoE dailies.

Paragon Feats

Oppressor

This tree is more geared towards applying chills faster than other paragon paths giving you the ability to chill things faster. It is a niche build and usually overlooked by the wizard community, it is good for PvP due to its distrupting nature, and high chill application. The reason it is overlooked is because it does not provide any party friendly damage buffs/debuffs.

Tier 1Severe reaction: When struck you have 15% chance to repel your attacker by 1/2/3/4/5 feet and restore 2/4/6/8/10% of your stamina. This only works on enemies within 20 feet.There are a couple things bad about this feat, firstly 15% chance, that is 1 in 6-7 hits. And at high level anything hitting you hurts. Secondly, 5 feet is ridiculously small, you will barely notice the distance but will interrupt them for a split second.

Bitter cold: You gain 1/2/3/4/5% bonus to damage after afflicting an enemy with cold. lasts 6 seconds and does not stack.You maybe apply chill effect quite often if not always, so 5% extra damage buff that can easily be refreshed is a useful feat indeed.Tier 2Brisk Transport: After teleport you gain 2/4/6/8/10% extra run speed for 3 seconds.10% is noticable, but only slightly, and for 3 seconds this will not get you anywhere quickly.

Chilling Control: Sudden storm has a 10/20/30/40/50% chance to apply chill to enemies hit by its primary strike.Useful if you are using sudden storm but will calculate the chance on cast rather than per target, would be alot more reasonable if it was 100%.

Tier 3Cold infusion: Foes inflicted by chill deal 1/2/3/4/5% less damageA nice additional debuff to go with chill. 5% may not be noticeble amount but in some scenarios where your tank friend needs to hold out against many nasties, this can help him/her out.

Glacial Movement: Ray of frost has an additional 5/10/15/20/25% chance to apply another stack of chill.Only useful if you plan to use ray of frost as your main at-will, as the chance is too low to be relied on.

Tier 4Alcarity: When you kill an enemy afflicted by chill, the cooldowns of Icy Terrain and Entangling force are reduced by 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds.Very useful feat, Entangling force is one of our staple spells for generating AP. Just make sure you kill things.
Controlled momentum: After using a control power, your at-will deal 2/4/6/8/10% more damageNice damage boost, and lasts for 6 seconds (needs confirmation from an oppressor wizard).

Final FeatShatter strike: Your Ice storm daily now applies 5 stacks of chill instead of 1. Your Chill Strike encounter now applies 3 stacks of chill instead of 1.The icestorm daily can be useful but make sure you apply 2 stacks of chill prior to use it (within icy terrain suggested) as it will then freeze anything you hit.

Thaumaturge

This is a good all-rounder build, works effectively and grants you versitility with your gear choices, as well as provide you good damage. The tree is designed primarily to give you flat damage buffs and/or apply debuffs, and requires no gear/stat specifics to be used effectively but requires you to use specific spells instead.

Tier 1Tempest Magic: When your target is below 30% maximum hit points, you deal 2/4/6/8/10% extra damage.Useful during boss fights, when you must dish out some damage before the end. With the amount of hitpoints bosses tend to have, it can be a useful feat.This does not stack with the tiefling racial but both will work within their parameters (+5% below 50% and then +10% below 30%), this is feat only 5% if you are a tiefling and will do nothing until putting 3-5 points into it.

Malevolent Surge: When killing a foe you gain 2/4/6/8/10% damage for 4 seconds. stacks 3 times.Sounds great. however it is very situational, during solo you will have killed most things at the same time. Remember it only works after you kill something it can speed along AoE fights/clearing.

Tier 2Destructive Wizardry: When you strike two or more foes with storm pillar with it charged atleast halfway, you gain 2/4/6/8/10% damage for 6 seconds.Storm pillar has a small aoe radius (not the pillar). But it can be useful if you are willing to use storm pillar once every 6 seconds in AOE situations, however it could be fustrating trying to hit 2 or more targets.

Snap Freeze: Your Cold powers will deal 3/6/9/12/15% more damage to targets which are not afflicted by chill.A moderate damage boost if you do not use cold powers often such as arcane renegade build. only works with encounters.

Tier 3Far Spell: Increases the range of your Magic Missile and Chill Strike by 2/4/6/8/10 ft.Good for that extra poke in PvP, unnoticible in others.
Frozen Power Transfer: Chilling Cloud now grants 1/2/3/4/5% bonus damage for every target you hit with it’s third strike. Lasts for 8 seconds and is reset when hit by the third strike from Chilling Cloud again.Very nice damage bonus can stack 5 times if you hit 5 targets however the aoe is small though so you will not always be able to gain the maximum stacks for this buff and if you gain 5 stacks first then hit something that is alone, you will lose your 5 stacks and it will be refreshed as 1 stack.

Tier 4Transcended Master: Shard of Endless avalanche deals 3/6/9/12/15% more damage and Ice Rays deals 4/8/12/16/20% more damage when cast on the same target twice.
Very nice damage increase for those who uses these encounters, especially Ice rays in PvP coupled with snape freeze.

Final Feat:Assailing Force: Your Conduit of Ice now reduces the mitigation of effected targets by 15%.Useful end feat great for aoe debuffing/and damage, as well as another additional damage increase for your fellows whilst accompanied with ray of enfeeblement.

Renegade

This is what I call the charisma tree, it benefits from critical rating/chance and combat advantage bonus. This tree will give you the ability to utilise combat advantage at any range and position for all your party members, as well as other bonuses for yourself and your team mates. A versatile build when it comes to spell selection, but requires a higher demand on the critical stat, and charisma.

Tier 1Critical power: When you land a critical hit you gain 1/2/3/4/5% of your total action points. 10 second cooldown.
Nice feat for gaining those extra action points, when this crits on an aoe spell and it is available, it will grant 5% per target e.g. 25% AP if you crit entangling force, but remember it has a 10 second cooldown

Reaper’s touch: Increases your at-will damage by 3/6/9/12/15% when target is within 20 feet.This is a nice damage boost but situational, since you need to get close enough to your target. In aoe situations you maybe in this zone often, however in boss fights you will need to be touching the boss to be safe, remember that your teleport is 25 ft.

Tier 2Nightmare wizardry: When you crit you have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to gain combat advantage for 4 seconds.Useful feat, because us wizards cannot position ourself so easily for combat advantage, which is a 10% damage bonus (+any charisma or feat bonus). Taking this feat is the only realistic way to gain combat advantage, and benefits all the party heavily reliant on crit or EotS class feature.

Unrestrained Chaos: Maelstrom of chaos also applies chill effects to enemies or arcane stacks to yourself every second for 1/2/3/4/5 seconds.Even if you decide to use this daily, it’s effect is minor considering there are other ways to apply/gain these stacks.

Tier 3Phantasmal Destruction: when you deal combat advantage damage you gain 3/6/9/12/15% critical severity for 6 seconds.Coupled with Nightmare wizardry from tier 2, this is a good choice to have especially when you have high crit chance, but also remember you need to be close to get combat advantage working, or when nightmare wizardry has procced.

Energy Recovery: The third strike on chilling cloud now has a 25% chance to grant you 0.15/0.30/0.45/0.6/0.75% of your maximum hitpoints as temporary hitpoints. this effect is also increase by 0.15/0.30/0.45/0.6/0.75% for every additional target hit.At 20,000 hp this will give you 150 temp hit-points when hitting one target, and with a 25% chance. I dont see how this will help you in any situation.

Tier 4Masterful Arcane Theft: Steal time and Ray of enfeeblement deal 1/2/3/4/5% to targets effected by chill and an additional .6/1.2/1.8/2.4/3% damage per arcane stack on you.With 5 stacks of arcane and chilled target your steal time and ray will deal 20% increased damage. this can easily be achieved by using magic missile, and a cold encounter, (icy terrain with steal time, or chill strike with ray for example). A useful feat if you use steal time and/or ray of enfeeblement

Chilling Advantage: When you have chilling presence slotted, your cold encounter spells have an additional 1/2/3/4/5% chance to crit.Situational but has its uses when using a cold aoe setup, however to use chilling presence effectively you should use icy terrain, which does not crit. leaving only Conduit of Ice or Chill strike to benefit from this.

Final Feat

Chaos Magic: Your magic missile now has a 33% chance to apply 1 of 3 effects to the target. Only 1 of these effects can be applied at one time, and last for 10 seconds.
Chaotic Growth: Allies near the target are healed for 1% of their maximum hit points per second.
Chaotic Nexus: Enemies near target have their mitigation reduced by 15%
Chaotic Fury: Allies near the target gain 15% bonus power.Sounds great, with a high proc chance and a constant use of magic missile this will activate alot for those within range of the target (25ft), however everytime it procs it will override the previous so do think on relying on one of the boons.

Spell Builds

To make the most out of a wizard is to adjust accordingly to different situations, because a build maybe useful during leveling phase for example, does not mean it will be effective in a dungeon environment, or PvP. Below I have listed some sample builds that i find can work effectively in a certain scenerios, most are open to customisation, depending on your playstyle.

Solo/Leveling

This is more or less what i used for leveling and still do in foundry missions, its versatile and nothing better to do than clear things out in 1 spell

Mastery: Chill Strike(One hit groups of weak monsters)Encounter 1:Shield or sudden storm(protection or damage)Encounter 2:Entangling force (almost all solo content elites and bosses can be controlled, use this on those tougher ones and burn them down without having to move.)Encounter 3:Steal time/shard/sudden storm.(another aoe when chill strike is on cooldown.)Daily 1:Oppressive force/Ice storm(extra clearing power and control.)Daily 2:Ice knife (take down tougher mobs quickly)Class Feature 1:Evocation(aoe is what you will be doing mostly in solo, and you will want to take them out before you even have stacks of chill/arcane)Class Feature 2:Storm Spell (does alot of damage, and procs often)

Area Damage

Two routes you can go down, Arcane or Chilling depending on your spec.

At Will: Chilling cloudMastery: Conduit of Ice(Larger radius, applies chills, crits and ticks 6 times)
Encounter 1: Sudden Storm or Shard of avalanche (does alot of damage or use shard if you need knockdown)
Encounter 2: Icy Terrain(applies chills, works great with conduit for quick freezing and increases conduit damage, hits everything too ticks 8 times)
Encounter 3: Steal time(Does not hit everything, but its stun and slow is valuable whilst you are close to apply icy terrain, does alot of damage too, and gives you time to recast shield, also applys 6 “hits” so weapon enchants or storm spell procs will work too)
Daily 1: Arcane Singularity(Use this when there are alot of mobs, bring them together and whack on conduit and icy terrain underneath them, use shield before they get pulled up to regenerate AP and deal damage, they will get pulled straight back up into the hole and drop down in a nice compact pile for you)
Daily 2: Oppressive force (Use it when you dont need to use arcane singularity, though it is more situational)
Class Feature 1: Chilling presence (You will be applying chills alot so this feature will be in effect)
Class Feature 2:Storm Spell (Extra damage, will proc multiple times on these spells)

This is the most effective single target build i have tried however you may wish to switch between magic missile and chilling cloud depending on whether you wish to have alot of crits or a consistant 18% damage (and benefit from cold power feats if you have taken them).

This is what most wizards will be used for, and expected to know/do. We have the ability to generate AP faster than most other classes. It is most down to two things: entangling force on mastery, and critical power feat.

Mastery: Entangling Force(Generates 5%+ extra AP for any other enemies hit, and it generates alot, in large waves you can replenish 70-90% of your action point bar in one hit, as it has no limits)
Encounter 1: Shield (Does not generate high AP but you need this to be able to bump)
Encounter 2: Steal time(Gives a fair bit of AP, but its primary use is to keep things stunned in between singularities or when you need to re-cast shield)
Encounter 3: Shard of Endless Avalanche(Knockback, explosions and damage. It currently doesnt work on targets effected by singularity but using this on them when they drop out puts them down for a couple seconds along with steal time, it will keep those nasties out of combat before you put up another daily, swap this out for sudden storm/icy terrain as alternatives)
Daily 1: Arcane Singularity(pulls them all together for and away from you and your team mates)
Daily 2: Oppressive Force(dazes everything around you for a few seconds, useful if your time is in immediate damage and when arcane singularity would not help.)
Class Feature 1: Storm spell
Class Feature 2:Eye of the storm

PvP

This is where you will find the most variation, my PvP playstyle is, kill something before they have a chance to react. Rely on blink to avoid encounters (ignore auto attacks)

Mastery: Ice Rays (This is beastly in PvP, because enemies can not dodge it. I usually use this either when i know they will dodge or after ive applied debuffs)
Encounter 1: Ray of Enfeeblement (Debuffs target, high damage. Use first if they are not looking)
Encounter 2: Entangling Force (Holds them in place for everyone to bash on relentlessly, use this before Ice knife for a guaranteed hit, use it before they realise you are there so they do not dodge/evade/block it)
Encounter 3: Chill strike (Short duration stun, and damage. Can be swapped out for repel, to make sure you get room for more nuking and wait for cooldowns, I use this because i have the high vizier set and plaguefire, and i like eating sentinel GWFs and GFs with ease)
Daily 1: Ice knife (Can nearly 1 shot depending on target, use it only when you know they are out of stamina/block or are controlled, or unaware)
Daily 2: Oppressive force (Unstealth those pesky rogues, can use arcane singularity here too, if theres a group of them in a cleric circle, a well placed arcane singularity can work wonders for your team)
Class feature 1: Storm Spell (More damage)
Class feature 2: Eye of the storm (Proc this and they will feel it)

About the Build Check your ego at the door; this is a pure support build. You won’t be at the top of the Paingiver charts, but you will clear dungeons and bosses faster. A support CW has quite a few buffs and debuffs, so keeping them up is a pretty engaging way to play and […]

MOD 10 Tactical CW PVP Build Artifacts you want to get and use for this build: Primary Artifact: Symbol of Air ( you use this artifact NOT on anyone as it gives you a 30% movement speed bonus when you do not attack somebody with it, unless you are fighting on a node, […]

I am FNHUSA57. I started playing neverwinter as a control wizard back in mod 5, it’s now mod 9 and time for me to give you my updated build for level 70 over 3K item level… A bit about the CW: This class is very fun to play and very versatile. With that said we […]

You built a Control Wizard huh? Well you picked a good class then. The Control Wizard (CW) is one of the most versatile classes in Neverwinter. Here I am going to go over my personal build and why it works for me, not you, me. If you like this and wish to use it as […]

Breed Choose the one that fit, however we have three that stand out, and Tiefling Dragonborn, Human is also good. I am human because of +3 points Statistics For hum CW and specifically, the CW DPS We want to focus on Intelligence and Charisma. Wisdom AND A secondary feature so do not worry too […]

Hi everyone Welcome to the “How to melt a dragon – Master of Flame partybuffer guide” First: This build is a compromise between PvE party buffer and decent dps. You won’t like it if you can’t imagine not being top dps in your party. I don’t PvP so i have no idea how this build […]

I was wandering about the boons you chose,
I’ve been playing for about 2 months now and I have a gs of 10,000 I’m coming on my final boon selection .
I respected my cw with the Renegade and I love it.I get like ddl and trip crits.
but very nice outline well done

section limits AoE spell all to review. I wonder if you’ve never played a mage.
I find it pretty useless as a guide, even a new player who just read the powers and talents in the game to understand the same things, I find a copy paste of various parts.